Top Edtech Companies in India

Have you seen your child sitting on their laptops and listening to lecture videos or solving mathematical equations that pop up on a laptop screen? The chances are they are a student of an ed-tech ecosystem like Byju’s Learning, UpGrad, Unacademy, and more. Over the last two years, the pandemic has skyrocketed the boom of education technology in the country. As schools shut down and classes became virtual, the dependence on technology to bridge the education delivery gap increased multifold, paving the way for multiple ed-tech startups to grow exponentially by providing broad level and targeted online education aimed at relevant skill development across all age groups. 

For instance, BYJU’S focuses on the K-12 learners (school students between class 1 and class 12), while organizations like Unacademy and UpGrad focus on industry-specific skill development to enhance an individual’s employability. Considering the competitive employment ecosystem in India and the volume of talent the country produces, candidates find such online tutoring to be profoundly valuable in improving their knowledge of implementable concepts, which are often missed in the traditional educational system. Furthermore, recruiters and organizations seek specific skill sets, and these courses and certifications from varied edtech companies provide the same for candidates.

These companies blend educational content and technology to deliver an interactive learning experience. They use methods such as live classes, virtual reality videos, learning apps, and YouTube channels to enable students to learn at their pace and their convenience. 

Now, let us explore the core idea of this article: the top edtech startups and companies in India and how they are changing the edtech industry at large.

• Byju’s Learning – Now a household name, Byju’s Learning is one of India’s and arguably the world’s largest edtech platforms catering to the K-12 segment. Founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, the startup delivers courses designed to be learned in tandem with school, common entrance exam, and competitive exam syllabi across the country. Using hi-tech tablets as learning devices and interactive videos, Byju’s has successfully made learning fun for children. Additionally, during the pandemic, they were on an acquisition spree to bolster their teacher accessibility and expand their repertoire of courses. Today, Byju’s offers courses in the CBSE, ICSE, CAT, IAS, JEE, NEET, Commerce, JEE Main, NCERT, JEE Advanced, K-12, and NCERT syllabi. Being the highest valued edtech startup in India, they leverage their power of celebrity partnerships and content partnerships with Shahrukh Khan and Disney to penetrate deep into tier 2 and tier 3 markets cementing their presence as a national learning brand.
• Unacademy – One of India’s first edtech startups, Unacademy, started its journey as a youtube channel in 2010 and later registered itself as an education technology company in 2015. With a vision to provide comprehensive online learning for competitive entrance exams like GATE and CA, Unacademy has gained immense popularity over the last two years. They acquired CodeChef, kreatryx, and prepladder to bolster their student headcount and add more courses to their dossier. With live interactive classes, an easy-to-use mobile app for learning, and a monthly subscription-based enrolment, they are redefining exam prep in India.
• Simplilearn – Simplilearn can be styled as the ‘Coursera of India’ for their approach to learning delivery has been similar to Coursera. What began as a blog site is now one of India’s premier edtech platforms offering post-graduate level laser-focused courses to help build in-demand industry skills like digital marketing, data science, cyber security, project management, and more. Their partnerships with universities like Purdue and UMass and large MNCs like Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM further their courses’ value and credibility as a go-to edtech platform. They focus on “job guarantees” and “helping candidates secure high-paying jobs” as two key focal points of their courses.
• Udemy – Not everybody wants to learn hurriedly; a large segment of the population learns for pleasure and wants to do so at their own pace. Understanding this paradigm, Udemy based its value proposition on delivering myriad self-paced, modular courses presented as byte-sized videos by industry experts. What’s better? They provide lifetime access to the content, making it easier for students to log in at any time and continue their learning journey. Compared with their contemporaries, Udemy’s course fee is accessible to all making them a popular choice among the youth of this nation.
• UpGrad – UpGrad, and Simplilearn are similar in terms of their business models; however, in a short period, UpGrad has grown to become a unicorn with a valuation of over $1.2 billion. How? Simple. They partner with premier universities worldwide and in India to provide targeted post-graduate learning. For instance, UpGrad provides MBA courses from NMIMS, Mumbai, Deakin University, Australia, and more. Further, they have created an ecosystem of partnerships comprising themselves, NASSCOM, and global universities to offer courses that enhance a candidate’s employability. What’s more? Unlike a typical edtech platform, on UpGrad, candidates can leverage mock interviews to prepare themselves for the big day and seek career counseling services. While the service is complimentary for UpGrad graduates, non-UpGrad graduates have to pay a fee for utilizing their expertise. If you are a recruiter or talent acquisition specialist, you can publish job postings on the UpGrad platform, and they will help match you with UpGrad graduates who match your skill requirements. No wonder they are a unicorn!

There are a dozen more edtech companies we haven’t covered, and who knows, there would’ve been one or two edtech companies founded in the time you took to read this article. Such is the demand for online learning, and it is here to stay. As the demand for such platforms skyrockets, so does the need for these platforms to acquire high-quality talent to stay at the top of the market, and that is where companies like Xpheno play a huge role.

As a specialist staffing firm, we are primed to help organizations identify high-quality talent for niche roles, both mid-management, and CXO-level, across engineering, IT, and ITES.

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